Effective separation of uranium(VI) from wastewater using a magnetic carbon as a recyclable adsorbent

An environmentally friendly magnetic biochar was successfully prepared for the efficient removal of uranium(VI) from wastewater. The results of batch adsorption experiments showed that the uranium(VI) removal on the magnetic biochar was almost independent on the ion strength and ion species. After five cycles, the removal percentage of uranium(VI) on the magnetic biochar still exceeded 90%, which displayed that the magnetic biochar possessed excellent reusability for removing uranium(VI). It was worth mentioning that the biochar-based adsorbents were easy to be recovered from solution after doping magnetic iron oxide into biochar. Besides, the as-prepared magnetic biochar could effectively (95.2%) remove uranium(VI) with a high adsorption capacity (662.5 mg/g), which was far superior to other biochar-based adsorbents. In a word, it was expected that this investigation would provide a green treatment method for the excess of cow manure and an ideal adsorbent for removing uranium(VI) from wastewater. Capsule The magnetic biochar with excellent adsorption properties were prepared via environment friendly method.